Leader or prime minister?

© Túry Gergely

In your studies, you claim that Hungary was a party-based democracy until 1998, after which government became based on the leader principle. What does this mean? And is it good or bad for us?

It is not just parties that are declining in importance; parliaments and governments are as well. Things are changing most radically in the UK, where Tony Blair has far more power than his predecessors. He is far less dependent on his party than his predecessors. In Hungary, Viktor Orban is not the only leader, and this emergence of the leadership principle is not a transitional phenomenon. Peter Medgyessy and Ferenc Gyurcsany, can both, in their different ways, be seen as leaders, just like Orban. Even in his own party, many see Gyurcsany as "our Viktor".

It is hard to think back to awkward, stuttering Medgyessy and see him as a leader.

Formally, he was less dependent on the Socialist Party than Gyurcsany now is, since he was not a member of the party. The Socialists brought him in as a guest player to help them win the campaign. In some ways, Fidesz had tighter control over Orban than the Socialists over Medgyessy.

They still brought him down.

But he pursued his own policies while in power. In a leader-based democracy, the leader has much power, but it is not unlimited. If he does not succed, or if it is clear that his camp has no chance of victory, the leader is replaced. And if someone fails as a leader, he has little chance of returning to power.

If parties have become so unimportant, why did Orban throw himself into reorganising his party after his defeat in 2002?

In 1993, Ivan Szabo said of his own party, the Hungarian Democratic Forum, that its membership was "awful." Nowadays, all Hungarian politicians share this view. Orban was interested not in boosting his party's membership but in strengthening the party's infrastructure. The establishment of the Civic Circles and the establishment of a party alliance embedded the party deeper into Hungarian society, but did not effect Orban's status as leader. He believed that though Fidesz's 2002 campaign was a good one, it was undermined by the lack of effective local party groups. Now he is trying to catch up with the Socialists in terms of local organisation.